"The wicket looks dry, it might take a little bit of turn from the very first day itself but we'd like to put the runs on the board and then put pressure on the Aussies," Mathews said.

Jon Holland, who was added to the Australian squad after fellow left-arm spinner Steve O'Keefe sustained a hamstring injury in their 106-run defeat at Pallekele on Saturday, makes his Test debut on a track that tends to offer plenty of turn.

In a similar like-for-like replacement forced by another hamstring injury, Vishwa Fernando makes his Test debut, replacing fellow paceman paceman Nuwan Pradeep. Australia face a do-or-die situation in the contest and skipper Steve Smith stressed the need for a big first innings total to stay alive in the series.

"(The mindset would be) to make sure we go big in the first innings. We had an opportunity to do that in the last match and we let ourselves down," he said.